After WWII, the Nationalist Government's ban on "dialect pictures" threw Cantonese film workers into a frenzied panic, and it was the Southeast Asian market that saved the day. This Camilleesque story traces the luckless lot of a Chinese songstress (Kiwako) in Southeast Asia. Despite her strong identification with her native country, the woman's affair with Wang Hao, a rich heir from the Mainland, is thwarted by Wang's domineering father (Lo Duen) who snubs his overseas compatriots. Arguably an allusion to the Nationalist Government's discrimination against diasporic culture and Cantonese cinema, the film could have gone further if it had dug deeper into the subject. This studio-shot piece exudes an exoticism which, rudimentary as it is, offers a glimpse of the struggles faced by postwar Cantonese filmmakers who went all out to cater for overseas markets.

Guest Commentator: Law Kar
# To follow with seminar. See "Seminar"

The contents of the programme do not represent the views of the presenter. The presenter reserves the right to change the programme should unavoidable circumstances make it necessary.